Jay & Miles X-Plain the X-Men

121 – Two Sides of a Narcissistic Coin (feat. Ben Acker)

Art by David Wynne.
Art by David Wynne.

In which Jay may or may not have sold their voice to a sea witch; Gambit and Deadpool are somewhat lackadaisical superheroes; everything Fat Cobra does is amazing; Miles is a prepared gentleman; Gambit is there to look pretty and throw something; and there is now a Ben Acker vocaloid hovering around the studio.

X-PLAINED:

  • Acker & Blacker
  • Thrilling Adventure Hour
  • X-Men #214, but not the real one
  • Deadpool v. Gambit
  • As-needed approach to continuity
  • The ontology of Deadpool
  • The time the Absorbing Man turned into cocaine
  • Wolverine Season One
  • What makes Gambit creepy
  • The roadtrip miniseries you didn’t know you needed
  • A theoretical poker game and its theoretical outcome

NEXT EPISODE: Atlantis Attacks!


There is no visual companion to this episode! Go read Deadpool v. Gambit! It’s great!

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Contact David Wynne to inquire after the original of this week’s illustration.

31 comments

  1. Just wanted to point out that the words “Deadpool is the best X-Man” had now been said in this podcast. Twice.

    (:<

    1. My friend, if you haven’t figured out by now that this podcast is full of lies, I’m not sure what to tell you (aside from “stay away from bears”).

  2. Len Wein’s is the only signature I’ve ever gotten from a con. He was having a conversation with Marv Wolfman when I walked by in a hand-embroidered Wolverine tank. I wasn’t planning on bothering them, but Len noticed me walking past and asked if I wanted my shirt signed. Obviously. (Squee!)

    I’m planning on having it framed for my little nephew’s wall.

    1. Jay and I both managed to be sick at the same time. We’ll be tackling the books we missed alongside the ones from this coming week!

  3. YES! Jay, I knew we agreed on this even if we hadn’t agreed on it before hand. Gambit is often written as ‘that guy who can steal your girlfriend’ which is often an awful collection of tropes and sleazy cliches. Earlier in issues, there is a lot of consent around him. Yeah, he’s that guy who could sleep with all of the ladies but only if that’s what they’re interested in doing? He’ll make the offer but no is no but he’ll make sure you know that the offer is out there.

    I may have some feelings about this.

    As a side note – I want a roadtrip with Gambit and Nightcrawler, personally. Swash, swash, buckle, buckle.

    1. I am hardcore down with a Gambit and Nightcrawler team up involving swashes, buckles, accents and anything else they feel like getting up to.

          1. I don’t know why they would be resentful, I think a character that doesn’t take everything seriously helps balance the team. Love the commission!

            1. Thanks! It is weird to me too but, apparently, there is only one charming skinny dexterous guy slot on the team and Remy kicked Kurt out – neve rmind taht Kurt was having Excalibur adventures at this point….?

            1. I’m not entirely certain what happened there but I really want to know…? One of my favorite parts of it is that it works with either side as up.

          2. That is an awesome commission!

            Darnit, now I DO want to see their roadstrip… I mean roadtrip… actually no, let’s go with the typo/Freudian slip! 😉

            It’s amazing how putting him in actual clothes as opposed to that appalling THING (I’m sure there’s a name for it) he wore under the mandatory duster in the 90’s alters ones perception of Gambit.

            1. Heh. Roadstrip. There are so many places to go with that.

              That head sock with the hair sticking out is just freaking awful. It is one of the worst things to come out of the 90s and there are no shortage of those.

    2. I’m not quite sure I can see them working together that well because whilst both flirt, they do so in different ways.

      Kurt seems to do it for fun, as much to make someone else smile at the attention he pays them as anything else. If someone flirts back it’s fun for them both and that’s awesome.

      When Remy flirts it always seems to be with an ulterior motive. He does it because of something HE might get out of it (Whether it be sex or access to a safe or the like). Though that might just be because of the ever-present slightly sleazy vibe I get from Gambit which I’ve never gotten from Nightcrawler.

      1. See, while Remy will use flirting as a weapon, that’s not always the end all be all of it. That and, personally, I think it would be hilarious to see both of them doing good together, just in different ways. Kurt would volunteer and Remy would Robin Hood it up. Kurt would try to convince Remy to be more straightforwardly good while Remy would remind Kurt that he can be that fun loving rake too sometimes, when he gets a little too serious.

  4. I have to be honest, I was a little in and out on this episode. I don’t read a ton of current comics and am barely a fan of Deadpool so it was kinda just on in my headphones . That is until Ben mentioned really liking Rusty and Skids, and what a raw deal they’ve gotten over the years! Amen brother.

  5. I’m wondering: is selling something (or one’s voice in particular) to a sea witch a reference to something? Or is it Jay and/or Miles being creative? Either way, I love the idea of selling one’s voice to a sea witch for something awesome.

    1. It’s a Little Mermaid reference, which I would be happy to elucidate by belting this out –

      I admit that in the past, I’ve been a nasty…

  6. As a resident Deadpool super-fan, i can fill in on some info: It’s generally agreed that Deadpool is pretty much in constant pain (from the healing factor/cancer constantly at war within his body), and he feels every injury, but he’s become so accustomed to it, so he has now, more-or-less, a pretty high tolerance to pain. The whole dying, throwing himself at things bodily–It hurts like the dickens but he does it anyway. (here are some examples, or, from the mouth of the Merc with the Mouth himself: “I let his boys think that they whacked me, so I’d get a one-way ticket into the castle. 🙂 Hurts like a mother, but what the hey, I got a high tolerance for pain, and a healing factor to boot. It beats trying to break both in and out of the joint”).

    Deadpool is also really smart and is capable of planning some complicated plans/plots/cons (example, Daniel Way’s Wolverine Origins, issues 20-25 (say what you will about Daniel Way’s Deadpool; it does start a bit rough but I’m generally in favor of his run, YMMV), Also seen in issues 40something to 45.

    I loved the interview 🙂

    I hope both of you feel better <3

  7. MILES PLAYS EXALTED!!!

    . . .

    I’m sorry. I’ll go back to my corner now. *looks down and shuffles into corner while feeling guilty about going off-topic*

    (But seriously, if you want a role-playing game with a non-Western setting, canon queer characters and NPC characters of color, and crazy over-the-top action sequences, ask your local game dealer about Exalted. It is THE BEST.)

  8. Spider-Man Marvel Knights 13 is where the Absorbing Man gets turned into cocaine. People snort him and get powers for a bit.

    1. If you snort some Absorbing Man coke, what happens when Absorbing Man touches something else and turns to metal or something.
      That coke in your lungs/bloodstream is now steel!

      1. Even if he just switches his powers off completely, you now have little bits of Absorbing Man in your system.

        The more I think about the implications of this, the worst is gets!!

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